Poetry Chants, Saber Howls – Chapter 8

Jianghu Affairs the Heart Yearns For; A Thousand Li to See You Off on First Parting (Part 5)

Five days later, outside Yanjing Gate in Chang’an.

The distant hills seemed to smile, the old road unspooled endlessly ahead, and rank upon rank of willows tossed their catkins like snow, as if seeing off the travelers who came and went. A dozen or so saber-bearing guards cleared the way in front, escorting the Yiguang County Princess’s carriage on the long journey to Hongzhou. Prince Rui, tangled in official duties, could not come. Pei Huirong stroked her daughter’s hair, murmuring earnest instructions, her reluctance written plainly across her face.

            

Lady Ling, née Cui, noticed Ling Cheng standing to one side without moving for a long while, and asked curiously, “Aren’t you going up to say goodbye to Shejia?”

Ling Cheng said, “Aunt can only see Shejia off this far. Who knows how long it will be before Shejia returns to the capital and the two of them can meet again? Better to let them talk a while longer—how could I possibly butt in and spoil it?”

Cui Langzhen smiled, about to praise her daughter for being sensible—when Ling Cheng wrapped herself around her mother’s arm and tilted her face up with a wheedling grin.

            

“But if only Mother agrees, I can see Shejia a little farther down the road.”

“Oh, you!” Cui Langzhen tapped her forehead lightly. “What makes you so sure I’ll say yes?”

“Because I know Mother dotes on me—and dotes on Shejia even more. And Shejia is bound to want me keeping her company a while longer.”

            

“You certainly know how to find your reasons.” Cui Langzhen thought it over. She knew how deep her daughter’s bond with Xie Miao truly ran; and besides, she reflected, the mansion guards had all become superb hands under Female Warrior Su’s drilling these past two years—protecting one girl would be no trouble at all. So she relented: “Just don’t follow her all the way to Hongzhou. Come home early.”

About half an hour later, Ling Cheng hopped up into the carriage and settled beside Xie Miao, and the driver at last cracked the reins and set off.

At Pei Huirong’s instruction the carriage traveled slowly and steadily, without the least jolt along the way. Both girls knew this was their last stretch of time together before parting, and naturally they talked and talked. The smile never left Xie Miao’s cheeks. They were in the middle of a merry stretch when Ling Cheng abruptly fell silent and said no more.

            

“Are you thirsty?” Xie Miao lifted the carriage curtain and told the attending maid to fetch the water flask.

“Don’t fuss, I’m not thirsty. It’s only—we’ve talked so long already. If we keep on, what if your body gives out again? If you fell ill out here, it wouldn’t be like at home…”

The carriage had stopped the very instant Xie Miao lifted the curtain; and by the time Ling Cheng finished speaking, not only had the maid handed them water as instructed, but the Ling household guards had drawn near to gently remind their young mistress that “if we return too late, the curfew may keep us out of the city.”

            

Only then did Xie Miao realize another shichen had slipped away. She asked softly, “So you’re leaving now?”

“What do you mean, leave? We still have things left to say. But you mustn’t tire yourself, so we’ll simply have to finish tomorrow.” With her parents nowhere in sight, there was no one left to keep Ling Cheng in check. She turned her gaze to the guards outside. “Send two of you back to tell Father and Mother that I’m staying with Shejia at a relay station¹ tonight, and they needn’t worry about me.”

The guards were aghast. “This… this won’t do… My lady, please don’t put us in this position. The General and the Lady would never agree.”

            

“You haven’t asked them yet—how do you know they won’t agree? All I want is for you to go back and ask. If they truly refuse, come tell me, and I’ll turn straight around.”

By then, whether the General and the Lady agreed or not, she would already have spent the night with the Yiguang County Princess at some relay station or other, who knew how far down the road—wouldn’t her aim have been achieved either way? Such was the guards’ inward grumbling; yet servants can hardly defy their mistress, so with helpless murmurs of assent, two of them turned back for Chang’an while the rest escorted the carriage onward.

Green mountains rolled on without end, and so did the road. Ling Cheng watched three sunsets and three moonrises at Xie Miao’s side and lodged at three different relay stations, while the guards tried to talk her home more times than anyone counted. At last, missing parents she hadn’t seen in three days, she glanced back down the homeward road as they halted to rest.

            

Seeing it, Xie Miao said, “You’ve already seen me so far down the road. Uncle and Aunt must be sick with worry about you these past days—shouldn’t you head back? Besides, the Wanshou Festival is almost here, and you have to return to toast Grandfather’s long life.”

“Every year there are crowds upon crowds toasting Grandfather. What’s one fewer this year?” But at that, Ling Cheng’s spirits suddenly sank. “You’ll be back before September 12th, won’t you?”

That date was their shared birthday.

            

“Dharma Master Jiuru’s art is so brilliant—maybe a few days will be enough to cure me. Why would it take that long?” As always, comfort came tripping off Xie Miao’s tongue. But she was an old hand at being ill, and had picked up a healer’s learning by sheer necessity; she knew a sickness this deep-rooted could never be banished by a few doses of medicine. After a brief moment’s thought, she bent her head, unfastened the jade pendant at her breast, and pressed it into Ling Cheng’s hand with a smile. “Until I come back, let it keep you company in my place.”

Finest sheep-fat jade, warm and lustrous, pure white without a flaw, carved in the shape of a white rabbit. For one thing, Xie Miao’s childhood name Shejia meant rabbit to begin with; for another, there was the old legend of the Jade Rabbit pounding medicine—any mortal fortunate enough to swallow the elixir it pounded would live forever, ageless and undying. That was why Pei Huirong had given her daughter this very piece back then, to borrow its auspicious omen.

And now Xie Miao had passed it on to Ling Cheng.

            

A quick turn of thought, and Ling Cheng pulled the wolf tooth from around her own neck, holding it out to Xie Miao. “Father says wolf teeth ward off evil. In his first battle, he led a small detachment on a thousand-li raid, and a wild pack fell on them along the way. One arrow brought down the wolf king, and he pulled the king’s fang for good measure—and afterwards that battle indeed ended in a sweeping victory. You’ve given me your jade rabbit; surely you need something to keep you safe.”

Having traded the keepsakes worn against their skin, the two spoke a few more words, and only then did they reluctantly part.

This place, too, was a relay station, named Jimin Relay Station. From Chang’an to here they had traveled three days in all. On the way back Ling Cheng had no fear of the jolting, so her carriage naturally made far better speed. Two days later they reached the open country outside Chang’an—and suddenly the driver hauled the reins tight and stopped the carriage. Baffled, Ling Cheng pushed the curtain aside and looked out. Yanjing Gate still lay ahead—and in front of her, a young woman in a veiled hat stood blocking the road.

            

A breeze passed, and the woman lifted the black gauze of her hat. Ling Cheng lit up with delight. “Aunt Su, you—” But before the greeting could finish, she saw the severity on Su Ying’s face, one finger pressed to her lips in a gesture for silence.

“None of you speak.”

“Huh? Why?”

            

“Follow me.”

Every Ling household guard had trained under Su Ying and trusted her utterly. When she turned and walked, they followed without a flicker of hesitation despite their bewilderment, until, some quarter of an hour later, they had left the main thoroughfare thick with travelers coming and going and stopped at a quiet hillside. Ling Cheng hopped down from the carriage. “What is going on? What needs saying all the way out here?”

Su Ying’s lips parted, then stopped. Grief and tenderness surfaced in her gaze as she stared at the girl, and only after a long moment did she speak, word by word, each syllable distinct: “Three days ago, your father and Crown Prince Xie Bo entered the palace in armor and raised the banner of rebellion. The Imperial Guard has taken them both. They sit in prison awaiting trial.”

            

The words fell like a thunderclap from a clear sky. Ling Cheng gaped, her mind wiped blank—and every guard went white with horror, crying out as one: how could this be possible?

Everyone knew the truth of Ling Bingzhong: a loyal martyr’s orphan, raised in the palace from childhood. He was closest to Prince Rui Xie Shen, yet on good terms with the other princes too—but the one he truly revered, the one he honored as sovereign and as father, the one who held his entire loyal heart, was the reigning Sage Emperor Xie Tai alone. Anyone who knew him even slightly would never believe him capable of the slightest disloyalty.

“What kind of joke is this?” Amid the guards’ clamoring questions, Ling Cheng finally came back to herself, shaking her head over and over. “This joke isn’t funny. I’m not speaking to you anymore!”

            

Su Ying seized her by the arm, voice heavy and grave. “Of course General Ling would never rebel—everyone knows someone has framed him. But the fact remains that he now sits in prison. For now you cannot enter the city, or you will be seized on the spot.”

“Father put you up to this, didn’t he? I’ve been away for days—he must be angry with me again, so he sent you to scare me. How can he be so petty!” Panic threaded Ling Cheng’s voice. She still refused to believe Su Ying, straining with all her strength to break free of her grip; she would not rest until she had seen home with her own eyes.

They were off the highway, but travelers still passed not far away, and a scuffle like this would draw eyes. So Su Ying simply raised her hand and chopped—her knife-hand landing squarely on Ling Cheng’s neck. The girl slumped sideways into Su Ying’s arms. To any onlooker, it was a mother carrying her sleeping child; nothing worth a second glance.

            

The guards stood at a complete loss. “What… what in the world is going on?”

Su Ying’s brow stayed knotted, her voice dropping lower still. “I don’t know the details. The day Fuli left to see the Yiguang County Princess off, she didn’t come home that night—as the General and the Lady expected. They knew how deep the bond between Fuli and the County Princess ran, so they sent no one after her, thinking she would return the next day. Who could have known… who could have known that the very next night, the house would suddenly fill with Imperial Guard soldiers, saying the General and the Crown Prince had plotted rebellion, that they were there on imperial edict to surround the Ling Mansion, and that until the case was investigated, no one was to leave by a single step.”

In that instant, Cui Langzhen had felt relieved instead.

            

Ling Cheng was not in the capital.

“No one in the household knew what had happened, but not one of them believed the General a traitor. When soldiers asked where Fuli had gone, every mouth stayed sealed—and Prince Rui’s Mansion must have kept quiet too—so the soldiers took Fuli for still inside the city and are hunting her everywhere. But the Lady feared that the moment Fuli returned, she would walk straight into the net. She knows my qinggong² is good, and she charged me: if I could slip out of the Ling Mansion, I must find Fuli. For two days I kept watch at the city gates, until at last I saw you…”

With that, Su Ying lifted the unconscious girl into the carriage, brushed a hand over her cheek, and let out one sudden, heavy sigh.

            

“The Lady also said: rebellion is the one crime that exterminates nine degrees of kin³. Though none of you are flesh or blood to General Ling—only guards in his hire—you would scarcely escape the taint… She asked me to tell you that she and the General have dragged you into this. Flee, every one of you, and save your own lives.”

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The author has something to say:

The next dozen-plus chapters will split into two separate lines—solo storylines for Ling Cheng and Xie Miao. These are very important experiences, so I don’t recommend skipping them; only after that will I get back to writing the grown-up reunion arc.

            

Also, one more note for new readers: this story is plot-driven, plot-driven, plot-driven. If you little angels aren’t the type who enjoy plot-focused stories, there’s no need to force yourselves to keep reading—come and go as you please.

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